My friend Kim–sweet Kim with her gifts of encouragement–she gives her years a name. Because the years add up, day after day, to equal a life which is fitting us for an eternity.

When I first started this blog, I set out to do the same. Now I look back on the history of it and see what the Lord has done through the words He gave me for each year. It is a way to trace his grace through the “ordinariness” of a small life, but a life lived for Him.

My first year was named for beholding. Because beholding is becoming and I wanted to see Him more clearly–to see the sacred beautiful even in the quotidian movement of my days. I wanted to see more clearly the one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all, and I longed to be made more like Him.

Then I needed a year of sanctuary–intentional seeking of Him. I needed it more than I could have known. I made it a point to curl up on a lambskin blanket and to be with God. As I really stop to ponder that, it undoes me. That I can be with God, through His dear Son’s love for me and vindication of the wrath that I was certainly due. Unfathomable.

Now here is 2013–tabula rasa all waiting to be filled up. And how I long to fill it, through His power, with faith working through love. This is the only thing that really counts as I live in the now. As I live today.

So if I were picking a word, and I guess I am, that word would be: “Today.” Because I want to fully live in the moments He has given me, right now. I don’t want to be all good intentions and no action. I want to really love, today, even though I might risk being hurt or misunderstood. I want to share His word with passion, and have a fresh excitement for the power of the gospel, because today is the day of salvation.

And I want to live in the good of daily manna. He gives grace for today.

And I don’t want to worry about tomorrow, because today has enough trouble of its own. True confessions, though: I sometimes wish that each day wasn’t filled with trouble (or evil, as some translations say). But, alas, the glorious Day of all things good still awaits and I must keep my expectations aligned accordingly.

So there we have it–a year of todays. A year of choices to love, to repent, to forgive, to read and memorize, to pray, to make dinner and do laundry and hug my children. May all of our todays, dear friends, be filled with a million ways to trace His grace.